SALMOND'S PLANS UNRAVEL.

As the debate over Scottish independence gathers pace, it's clear that the plans of megalomaniac Alex Salmond are unravelling.

Last week, George Osborne made it clear that an independent Scotland would be just that - independent. He ruled out Salmond's plan for a sterling currency union and was backed up in this stance by the principle financial representatives of the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties as well as by the top civil servant in the Treasury.

Next, the current president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, appeared on television on Sunday and stated fairly categorically that an independent Scotland would have to apply for membership of the EU but could well be disappointed. Oh, Lordy, Lordy !

A cornerstone of Salmond's attempt to become Prime Minister, President or even King, of Scotland has been his constant claim that independence would change very little; the only real change would be to free it from the unwanted and hated attentions of the government in Westminster. According to Salmond, an independent Scotland would retain the Queen as head of state (though no mention of what would happen once she is gone), would retain sterling as its currency in a currency union with the remains of the UK, and would still be a member of the EU. It is now clear that at least 2 of these claims have 'feet of clay'.

Whatever the people who live in Scotland, for they are the only ones with a vote, decide in September there'll be ructions. If it's a vote for independence, expect a lot of whingeing and whining from the people once they realise the true implications of their choice; if it's a vote to remain in the UK, expect Salmond and his mates to be back arguing for the so-called 'Devo-max', in other words, effective independence within the UK. The second of these would undoubtedly lead to considerable unhappiness in England as Scottish members of the Westminster parliament would continue to tell the English what to do while Scotland was not affected by their decisions.

Ho-hum ! Exciting times ahead.

VINCENT NICHOLS : CARDINAL IDIOT.

Following the comments of Archbishop Welby a few months ago, another holier-than-thou prelate has decided to take issue with the government's financial policy. This time, it's the Cardinal-designate Vincent Nichols and his remarks are equally wrong and inappropriate.

Nichols believes that the government's social reforms are a disgrace and are leaving people 'facing destitution'. He claims that the 'basic safety net' for the poorest families has been 'torn apart' and that there is now a 'real dramatic crisis'.

As a representative of one of the richest organisations in the world, Nichols lives in palatial style. His organisation, the Roman Catholic church, purposely keeps many millions of its supporters in poverty and ignorance in order to maintain its vice-like grip on their lives; it denies the realities of today's world and does its best to ensure that its members remain rooted in out-dated tradition, flummery and mysticism. That he can criticise any government while supporting the world-wide activities of his church defies logic.

As well as the basic incongruity of his position, Nichols is also so factually wrong in his remarks that they become meaningless. The current government has done very little by way of 'social reform', other than introducing its perfectly sensible and fair reform to eliminate the 'spare room subsidy' previously enjoyed by many council tenants. Other than this, it has increased the basic personal allowance for income tax and kept interest rates at historically low levels, both policies which strongly benefit the less well-off, while seriously disadvantaging the better-off by the manner of their operation. Unemployment is falling dramatically and employment is at levels never before seen; exactly what is Archbishop Nichols wittering about ? Does he believe that the idle should be allowed to remain idle, or that the workshy should not be encouraged back into work ? If he does, he is in a serious minority.

The 'basic safety net' remains in place for those who need it, while those who are able to look after themselves are being made to do so. This is nothing but social justice. No one in this country, barring those who choose to be, can be called destitute and true poverty has been unknown here for at least the last 60 years. True poverty in the world exists only in countries dominated by religions, such as his.

One can only assume that, with his elevation to the College of Cardinals due to take place on 22nd February, Nichols felt the need to draw attention to himself. That he has done so is certain, as is the fact that he's made an idiot of himself.

BAN DOGS, NOT SMOKING IN CARS !

Today it's been reported that yet another child has been attacked and killed by a dog. This time, an 11 month old girl has been mauled to death in her bed by a supposed pet, which has since been destroyed.

Yesterday, our political masters voted to introduce a ban on smoking in any car in which a child is travelling. Today, the government has made it clear that such a ban, almost entirely unenforced and unenforceable, will be brought into effect in the near future and that contravention will be treated as criminal activity.

One has to wonder why it is that our politicians prefer to involve themselves in controlling the most minor aspects of our lives while ignoring far more serious issues. While cigarette smoke may be unhealthy and even lead to some irritation of the airways, no child has ever knowingly died from its effects; indeed, other than the contentious case of Roy Castle, no one has ever been known to die as a consequence of so-called 'passive smoking'.

Conversely, many people are attacked by dogs every year and some, mostly children, are killed. Our politicians have made half-hearted efforts to control so-called 'dangerous dogs', while ignoring the blatantly obvious fact that ALL dogs are potentially dangerous. They are basically wild animals which live by hunting, killing and eating other animals; they can, and do, carry an assortment of nasty diseases. We forget these facts at our peril.

So there we have it. While dangerous, and sometimes lethal, animals are allowed, and even encouraged, to roam freely amongst us, the government proposes to make criminals of anyone who dares to smoke in a car carrying children, an offence of no proven threat to life at all. Is it any wonder that the electorate are disenchanted with politics and politicians ?

BHUTTO A STORM IN A TEA CUP.

The idiotic fuss being made about some criminal who has, apparently, managed to be a member of both the Conservative and UKIP over the years is a fine example of the way in the which the media makes mountains out of mole-hills.

Mujeeb Bhutto has a fairly chequered history including being imprisoned for kidnapping. Obviously, such a person is a poor choice to be a political spokesman and one has to assume that those who granted him party memberships were unaware of his background, but then why should they have been ? He would hardly be the first member of a political party, or party spokesman, to have been found to be a crook.

One has only to consider the long list of MPs caught out fiddling their expenses, several of whom have been sent to prison, to realise that Bhutto is pretty far down the chain when it comes to criminality and political status. Politicians have lied and cheated for centuries - Chris Huhne, Jeffrey Archer, Jonathan Aitken and John Stonehouse all served prison sentences in recent years while many others from days gone by probably avoided such ignominy only because of powerful friends.

Bhutto does not bare comparison with these people and has only been in the news because of his association with UKIP, a party feared by all of the 'Big 3'; for Labour and the Liberals it's also manna from heaven that he's been shown to have been a one-time member of the Conservatives. In truth, it's all a storm in a teacup. 

VOTE UKIP.

CORRUPTION RIFE IN THE EUROPEAN UNION.

Today's BBC television news has been dominated by stories which have little merit or are anti-government. Top of the list was the supposed row about Michael Gove's activities as Secretary of State for Education, closely followed by the ongoing, and now rather tired, story about flooding, the death of some American actor of whom I've never heard, the trial of a Coronation Street actor, and so on. No mention of the single most significant story of the day so far, but then the BBC is a fervent supporter of the European Union, so why would it highlight the shortcomings of this dreadful organisation ? Indeed, this story is  even rapidly falling down the list of news items on the current version of what I still refer to as 'Teletext'.

While the EU's Home Affairs Commissioner has presented a report detailing the 'breathtaking' corruption which exists in the Union, the BBC news reported on a small 'sinkhole' opening up in High Wycombe; apparently the loss of a woman's car down this hole was considered more important than the identification of corruption within the EU amounting to £100,000,000,000 annually - that's £100 billion pounds, by the way, pretty much the budget of the entire NHS.

The commissioner, Cecilia Malmstroem, has gone even further than this and said that she believes the true cost of corruption within the Union to be 'much more' based on a survey conducted for the report but, presumably, £100bn was all she felt fully confident of reporting. Thus far, there does not seem to have been any reaction to this appalling news from any British, or EU, politicians.

One has to wonder why anyone, except those benefiting from the corruption, would want to belong to such an organisation. The sooner we leave it, the better. VOTE UKIP.

GOVE HITS SCHOOLS, TEACHERS AND PUPILS WHERE IT HURTS !

While most of the Tory members of the Cabinet are namby-pamby wets, one stands out as a go-getting hardliner - Michael Gove.

Already facing criticism from the left wing, egalitarian liberals who infest our society, over his decision not to reappoint one Baroness Morgan as the head of 'OFSTED', he's now announced that he wants our schools to bring back 'traditional punishments' as  response to bad behaviour by their pupils. Gove sees this as meaning the return of proper detentions, lines and more community-based sanctions such as cleaning classrooms or weeding school grounds.

Baroness Morgan is a Labour life peer and a former adviser to Tony Blair; it can hardly be a surprise that a Tory-led administration would want to bring in a more like-minded head for such an important QUANGO, but that hasn't stopped Gove's deputy, the expenses fiddling Liberal David Laws, from being reported as being 'furious' with his boss over the matter. Gove simply says that he feels it is time to refresh the leadership of OFSTED; what's wrong with that ?

As for classroom discipline, it's surely about time that teachers were given the power to exert some genuine control over the louts whom they are often called upon to educate. Unsurprisingly, teachers unions, all predominantly left-wing bodies, are jumping up and down in their usual hysterical fashion but without actually saying anything very meaningful; effectively, they're just carrying out their normal activity of opposing anything which a right wing government attempt to do to improve our failed education system.

Listening to Gove on today's 'Andrew Marr show' on the BBC, he's now chucked in another little bomb, suggesting that it's high time the little darlings worked a bit harder by having longer school days. In my time at school, we worked from 9-4 with a lunch break and a short morning break; now, it seems, that the school day is more like 9-3 with frequent 'free' periods in between and, of course, an emphasis on a plethora of 'life style' subjects aimed at indoctrinating children in areas such as equality and diversity, personal relationships and so on. My own knowledge from teenagers of my acquaintance is that they do very little at school which is of any use to them and that there's very little in the way of sanctions for bad behaviour. One 'A'- level pupil, whom I know, spends no more than a handful of hours at school plus a few more at a placement; her actual effort is minimal and yet she expects to gain the equivalent of 4 'A'-levels in due course and then go on to university. When I was at school, she'd have been lucky to get on an 'A'-level course, let alone go to university.

It's well passed the time for a radical overhaul of our education system and Gove may well be the man to do it, if he's given long enough at the job. That, of course, is the issue, as always in British politics. Unless the Conservatives win the next election he'll be out of a job by May next year and that will be that.

CYCLISTS MUST WEAR HELMETS, SAYS ASA.

It isn't only the Labour Party that loves to ban things "for our own good".

The organisation 'Cycling Scotland' (a ridiculous name, I might add) has produced a television advertisement designed to promote driver awareness of cyclists; apparently it shows a cyclist and encourages drivers to give such road users the same amount of space as they would a horse. Pretty simple and pretty obvious, one might think, but not to the autocrats at the Advertising Standards Authority.

The problem seems to be that the cyclist in the film is not wearing a helmet. Although wearing a helmet is not a legal requirement, the ASA has ruled that that not wearing one is, in their words, "socially irresponsible" and they've ruled that the advertisement must not be shown again.

I have no idea who are the members of the ASA but it's clear that they are another bunch of left-leaning liberals who are determined to impose their social standards on the rest of us. Their role is to ensure that advertising is fair, honest and legal, not to rule as to its "social responsibility". Given the nature of many of the advertisements which pass scrutiny with no problem - I think particularly of the many highly irresponsible ones for 'Pay day Loans', not to mention the utterly corrupt 'Insurance for the over-50s market' - one has to wonder, in any case, how the ASA determines what is and what is not "socially responsible".

Of all of the reasons for Scots to vote for independence in September, removing themselves from the ambit of this interfering organisation must be one of the most compelling.

BAN SMOKING !!

Representatives of the Labour Party, and many others who believe that they know best and should set the rules that the rest of us must follow, are at it again.

It's reported today that Labour Peers in the House of Lords are to table an amendment to the "Children and Families Bill" which would make it illegal for anyone to smoke in a car in which children are also travelling. The Labour Party has also said that if the amendment is not supported, they will include such a proposal in their manifesto for the next election.

I am no supporter of smoking, which I see as being a dirty, smelly, addictive and unhealthy habit. If it was truly banned tomorrow, so be it, but the way in which governments keep tinkering with the law surrounding it is pointless and stupid. Should the Labour Lords get their way with this latest piece of nonsense, it will introduce yet another largely unenforced and unenforceable law into the vast array of madcap social legislation which already exists. How on earth will the police monitor offenders ? How many offenders will ever be caught ? What penalties will they suffer ? Will this be another money making scheme for local councils to exploit, with excessive fixed penalties for the handful of miscreants who are captured, while the vast majority of offenders go unnoticed and unpunished ?

When we have so many much more pressing problems, how is it that our masters can find so much time for the pursuit of such nonsense ?

MIDDLE CLASS TO PAY EXTRA FOR STATE SCHOOLS ?

Anthony Seldon, headmaster of the innovative 'Wellington College' has a new idea; he wants to stop those with a bit of money from accessing state education for free.


Notwithstanding that anyone earning much more than £40,000 a year already has 42% of the excess stolen by the government at source, Seldon now wants higher earners, whom he defines as families with an income of over £80,000 a year, to have to pay if their children go to the 'most popular' state schools; presumably this would be regardless of whether the school in question was simply the local school. He believes that such an approach would break what he sees as the 'middle class stranglehold on top state schools' and would provide funds for reinvestment in other areas of education. As an aside, he also says that 'poorer pupils' should fill a quarter of private school places.


Seldon’s views have been published in a report he’s produced for the left-of-centre ‘Social Market Foundation’ and are another attack on everyone who has anything. Conflating the ‘most popular’ schools with the ‘best’ would hand socialist councillors and ministers a heaven-sent opportunity to milk the so-called rich wherever they live. The reference to a ‘middle class stranglehold’ is so nebulous as to be useless in any arena other than that patrolled by the left wing politicians who hate anyone seen to be ‘middle class’.


I haven't read the report, only the media reports of it, but there is no indication that Seldon has taken any account of the variation of earnings across the country or, indeed, the variation in schools and educational standards across the nation. He doesn't appear to have paid attention to the aspirations of those of 'middle class' who want to get the best for their children from the assorted, and significant, taxes that they already pay. His approach seems to be focused on money rather than education and it would be the children of the middle classes, those on whom the future of the country depends, who would suffer.


In all honesty, if I was younger and with children, I'd be booking my tickets and leaving this benighted country. As John Betjeman once said of Slough 'It isn't fit for humans now'.

MIKAEEL KULAR CASE HAS ECHOES OF MADELEINE McCANN.

The discovery of a body thought to be that of the missing child, Mikaeel Kular, can be no more than was expected.

The disappearance of the 3 year old a couple of days ago was always suspicious and his mother's suggestion that he must have got up in the middle of the night, dressed himself and somehow got out of his home unaided was always going to test the credulity of more intelligent people. The supposed 'sightings' of the boy wandering around on his own were no more than the usual demonstration of the extent to which some crave attention; if, indeed, people had seen a small child on his own, why hadn't they done more than simply tell the police ?

As is so often the case when small children go missing, it looks as though the culprits were close to home. Despite the hue and cry, the local police must have known this from the beginning and will undoubtedly have been watching the family closely throughout. The only people who seem not to have accepted the probable truth were the Kular family's neighbours, perhaps understandably, and the media, most specifically the BBC, which, as usual, milked this tragic story for all it was worth.  

One's thoughts return to the story of Madeleine McCann, another 3 year old who went missing and who has been sought high and low, far and wide, while the media, and others, have profited from the story. What happened to her ?

SAME OLD LABOUR, SAME OLD INTERFERENCE.

Having committed to interfering with the energy industry should his party win the next general election, Ed Miliband is now threatening to get involved in the banks.

No one can support overcharging by the energy companies or profligacy in the banks, but one suspects that the truth of both issues is nowhere near what Miliband would have us believe. The banking crisis was, undoubtedly, a partial consequence of the actions of those banks, though it's also the case that the Labour government had its greasy and grubby hands deep in that particular mire too. As for the energy companies, I'm far from convinced that they do overcharge to the extent that is claimed, though they certainly do make their tariffs and bills as confusing as they can.

Whatever the shortcomings of these major industries, the one thing that would be guaranteed to make them less efficient, less commercial and less reliable would be more government interference in their running.

Same old Labour, same old meddling and same old mess.

LEE RIGBY KILLERS SHOULD HANG.

Now that the 2 animals who murdered Lee Rigby have been found guilty, all that remains is the sentence.

 

In order to serve real justice, they should be hanged. Sadly, we're no longer allowed to deliver proper justice because of a whole load of left wing, namby-pamby policies that are pursued by governments of all hues in the so-called 'civilised world, which means that the only answer is for them to be locked away for the rest of their miserable lives. No possibility of release, ever; no possibility of parole or a comfortable open prison. This is a case where 'life' really must mean 'life'.

 

 Creatures like them have no place on this earth, let alone living in our society.

PORTILLO BRINGS SANITY TO MANDELA EXTRAVAGANZA.

A few days ago, on the BBC's "This Week", Michael Portillo said a few things which few would have dared to voice. He pointed out the appallingly one-sided nature of the coverage of the death of Nelson Mandela, singling out the BBC for particular criticism. He also criticized the way in which the BBC had despatched a vast army of reporters and others to South Africa, all effectively at public expense, in order to join in on the global media extravaganza.

 

Portillo did not decry Mandela but what he did do was to draw attention to the adulatory nature of virtually all of the media coverage, which ignored his life before his release from prison in 1990; that he was not a man devoid of faults was never mentioned.

 

Mandela was a communist terrorist and was imprisoned for the consequences of those beliefs and consequent actions. The way in which the global media has fallen over itself in its attempts to outdo its competitors in its adulation of Mandela is sickening. The way in which the likes of Obama and Cameron competed for attention at the memorial service, equally so.

 

When I was at school with Portillo, we were never close even though we were in the same class. When he began to climb the Tory ranks, I found him increasingly unlikeable. However, since he quit the political scene, he has become an increasingly sane voice in an increasingly mad world and I now look forward to his televisual appearances. On this occasion, he astonished me with his comments and views, which mirror my own precisely.

 

A world which thinks only of media celebrity needs an occasional voice of sanity, and Portillo provides that. More power to his elbow.

CAMERON, NIGELLA AND A JUDGE.

A few days ago, David Cameron was reported to have said that he was a great supporter of Nigella Lawson, a 'massive fan' and was on 'team Nigella'. Today, a judge made it clear that Cameron's comments were, to say the least, ill-advised, given that Ms Lawson is currently involved in a trial in which 2 former employees are accused of defrauding Lawson and her former husband, Charles Saatchi.

 

That Cameron was, to put it bluntly, an idiot for making the highly supportive remarks that he did while the subject of them is involved in a serious criminal trial is obvious; that the judge was right to criticise him for it, equally so. However, what is most concerning is that a Prime Minister could be so blinded by a desire to be associated with a 'celebrity' that he failed to apply any element of intelligence to his remarks.

 

If Cameron can be so easily caught out on something so obvious, how on earth can we trust the running of the country to him ? 

EDUCATION - WHAT EDUCATION ?

The OECD has sparked off a furious political row in the UK with its latest 'Pisa' educational test results. As if we didn't already know it, the UK is falling behind almost every other developed or developing country in its ability to educate our children; apparently, we are no longer ranked in the top 20 of international performers in mathematics, reading or science; within the UK, England performed worse than Scotland in mathematics and reading, while Wales was the poorest performer in all 3 subjects.

 

Labour and the Conservatives are now busy accusing each other of failing our children, failing to implement necessary educational reforms and so on an so forth. Neither has admitted to any failings of their own and both have simply proved how abysmal have been their activities on the education front over a period of many decades.

 

Anyone who has any experience of children and their education knows, without doubt, that the current system is a mess. Teachers are more concerned about making out health and safety reports for every bump and scrape than they are about educating their charges; they spend time and effort on fund raising in every possible way and in promoting a vast range of 'cultural' activities, rather than in teaching reading, writing and arithmetic. Is it any wonder that great swathes of children leave primary school still unable to read, write or add up ?

 

Once they become teenagers, things become even worse. Science classes no loner have much in the way of 'hands-on' science, due to costs, the availability of suitably qualified teachers and that hoary old chestnut, health and safety; the wonder of science is, consequently, destroyed. The pupils are subject to no effective discipline and can happily ignore lessons whenever they like; many, it seems, spend lesson time on their mobile 'phones, texting others in the class or friends outside. The teachers seem powerless to act.

 

Examinations have been rendered almost useless by the huge amount of 'continuous assessment' that has been included in final grades; with the emphasis on league tables, schools have been sorely tempted to be overly-generous in the marking of their children, so as to appear to be doing better than the lot down the road. Again, the result has been children with 'AS' and 'A' level grades which simply do not reflect their true level of attainment; the better universities have been complaining for many years about the effect this has on them, but to no avail.

 

The nonsensical ideology of university as being a right rather than a privilege has been a further problem. Large numbers of former technical colleges, polytechnics art colleges and so on have been granted university status and award degrees, far too often in pointless subjects and to students who simply shouldn't be at university. This approach is, of course, beloved by the educational fraternity as it provides them with jobs and status - imagine being a Professor, even if it is of Park Management at the University of West Wittering !

 

Sadly, the 'university for all' approach has also been favoured by successive governments who've seen it as a way to reduce the unemployment figures. By keeping children at school until they're 18 and then sending most of them to university until they're 21 or 22, millions have been removed from the 'dole' and from claiming other benefits; if this was to be reversed, the revelation of the true parlous state of our nation might just terrify us all.

 

What is needed is a return to a few 'old fashioned' values. Reintroduce Grammar Schools and discipline in the classroom; stop the namby-pamby nonsense of health and safety at every turn and get back to some proper teaching. Do away with 'children's rights' and the nonsense of university being a 'right'; it is a privilege for those for whom it may be beneficial, for the rest it is a distraction and even an impediment to getting a job.

 

Until some government really takes a grip on all of this, our children will continue to stagnate and our country will continue to slide down the international league tables, while China, Korea, Singapore and the rest will become more and more dominant.